What a fabulous story! I don’t care that it may be a bit contrived, a bit heavy-handed, the symbol of the woman in the wallpaper too obvious for our modern times. It’s just so perfect, right down to the final image of the woman (no name?) crawling over her painted control-freak husband (John–common name) again and again and again. The language is perfect. The words all right and wonderfully suggestive and full of wit. And…in its time a broad social critique.

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Some past posts to keep you making time: 
Adjust your pace accordingly.
It’s about the routine and how you shake up the routine
There are things you will have to give up
See it to achieve it
Washing the dishes
Write slowly
A celebration of the pause
Monday, a run through the driving rain
Zen accident
Get out of your comfort zone

TGIF!
And…only three more weeks ’til summer vacation. I spent hours yesterday getting writing projects organized for summer, when I’ll have more time to write. I also worked on this blog a bit, adding a new page on what I’m reading now. I used to chronicle this on myspace, but I’m done with that now. I prepared some poetry to send out in the mail. It was a productive day.
Okay, I’m getting better, I now spell check my blog entries, but I still find that I have to go back and edit them the next day, when my mind in no longer sunk in the content of the post. This is how I edit work that is not being instantly broadcast. It’s a bit like busy eating. It’s habitual. Slowing down takes conscious effort. Huge effort for me, since I’m often “busy” and accustomed to writing it all out and then editing later. Anyway, just a thought on that.

Buy my books here.

Interested in hiring me as a coach to get you boosted with your writing goals?
Find free resources and information here.
Some past posts to keep you making time: 
Adjust your pace accordingly.
It’s about the routine and how you shake up the routine
There are things you will have to give up
See it to achieve it
Washing the dishes
Write slowly
A celebration of the pause
Monday, a run through the driving rain
Zen accident
Get out of your comfort zone

The second sentence, “The world had been sad since Tuesday”, is just excellent. It introduces the central idea of this story, the self-centered nature of human beings which leads to complicity in wrong, even downright cruelty, and definitely neglect. Things are not going well for Pelayo, Elisenda and their sick child, hence, the world is sad. A pathetic fallacy. This is again demonstrated in the couple’s exploitation of the “angel” man to gain wealth and security and in how Elisenda regards the man’s appearance around the house as annoying and like living in a “hell full of angels”. All the characters in the story can only think of how the winged man can help or hinder them. It’s only when Pelayo cares for the man for the first time–giving him a blanket and a shelter to sleep under that the angel becomes well enough to fly away. Elisenda is happy that the angel is gone “because he was no longer an annoyance in her life but an imaginary dot on the sea. ” This couple’s reluctance to be compassionate and complete lack of curiosity or desire to cultivate their own sense of the fantastical shows their self-centered, mundane existence keeping crabs out of their home. I think there is also a message here about how people are willing to entertain ideas as long as they are convenient to them, such as the existence of angels.

Buy my books here.

Interested in hiring me as a coach to get you boosted with your writing goals?
Find free resources and information here.
Some past posts to keep you making time: 
Adjust your pace accordingly.
It’s about the routine and how you shake up the routine
There are things you will have to give up
See it to achieve it
Washing the dishes
Write slowly
A celebration of the pause
Monday, a run through the driving rain
Zen accident
Get out of your comfort zone

Felicite, ironically named, is never happy. Her life is full of devotion, submission and servitude. She is uneducated. She does not think for herself or have any hobbies or ambitions of her own. Her love is excessive and largely unappreciated and unreturned. There are some occasions where she receives objects of affection from her mistress and her nephew, but never any substantial gestures of love. She clings to these objects in an excessive, pathetic way. In truth, I don’t feel sympathy for her because she has no self, no identity to connect with. She clings to trinkets and remnants of lives she lived through. She is, as the title suggests, simply heart, without inspiration or direction or any of the complexity that is being human. It’s appropriate that she eventually goes blind–she’s blind all along, blindly devoted, which even for someone as simple hearted and “single-minded” as she is, does not lead to happiness or contentment. It’s a dead life she lives, full of relics of the dead, waiting for her own death.

Buy my books here.

Interested in hiring me as a coach to get you boosted with your writing goals?
Find free resources and information here.
Some past posts to keep you making time: 
Adjust your pace accordingly.
It’s about the routine and how you shake up the routine
There are things you will have to give up
See it to achieve it
Washing the dishes
Write slowly
A celebration of the pause
Monday, a run through the driving rain
Zen accident
Get out of your comfort zone

I’m not sure what to make of the title, except that maybe it refers to the change in the main character and how visiting the city he spend his youth frivolously in causes him to reflect on the change.
This is a sad story. Even with films like Mr. Mom to pave the way for change, we still live in a society that is slow to forgive the sins of fathers and reluctant to entrust them with nurturing tasks. I was annoyed at the end when the fact that the aunt had a headache prevented Charlie from gaining custody of his daughter and that he didn’t try more desperate measures to get custody.

Buy my books here.

Interested in hiring me as a coach to get you boosted with your writing goals?
Find free resources and information here.
Some past posts to keep you making time: 
Adjust your pace accordingly.
It’s about the routine and how you shake up the routine
There are things you will have to give up
See it to achieve it
Washing the dishes
Write slowly
A celebration of the pause
Monday, a run through the driving rain
Zen accident
Get out of your comfort zone

I love this story! Crane’s portrayal of life’s irony and the wit and care he takes to portray it makes this story thought-provoking and affecting.
One of my favorite lines is: “The injured captain, lying in the bow, was at this time buried in that profound dejection and indifference which comes, temporarily at least, to even the bravest and most enduring when, willy-nilly, the firm fails, the army loses, the ship goes down.” The mocking tone of this line makes dejection absurd. Silly humans with our silly notions of invulnerability!

Buy my books here.

Interested in hiring me as a coach to get you boosted with your writing goals?
Find free resources and information here.
Some past posts to keep you making time: 
Adjust your pace accordingly.
It’s about the routine and how you shake up the routine
There are things you will have to give up
See it to achieve it
Washing the dishes
Write slowly
A celebration of the pause
Monday, a run through the driving rain
Zen accident
Get out of your comfort zone